In the past we have secured the
last of the first two batches 1467 and 2040 and had been in contact with
First Manchester and thereafter First Group/First Glasgow regarding 7001 and
7010 as they had been moved to First Glasgow on 8th August 2007
along with the rest of the batch, 7002-7009. We had kept in contact with
the Head Office of First Group in Aberdeen who were fully aware of our
desire to secure the first of the batch 7001 (H701 GVM) and the last of the
batch 7010 (J710 ONF). The last two of the batch differ in terms of being
J-Reg from the first eight H-Reg vehicles and also had a different body
construction. 7001 to 7008 are H41/32F whereas 7009 and 7010 are H45/28FL.
They had a two tier offset step on the front entrance door and inside on the
lower deck in the centre of the vehicles were four inward facing seats on
both nearside and offside which could be folded up and away in order to
allow wheelchairs to be parked up. In fact this structure had been removed
on 7010 many years ago by First Manchester and they decided also to remove
these fitments on 7009, luckily we were able to secure them to put them in
stock to eventually put back on 7010, should we secure it for preservation.

Although we kept in touch with
both First Group Head Office in Aberdeen and First Glasgow about our desire
to secure the first of the batch, 7001, in keeping with our desire to secure
firsts and lasts of the batches we were also very keen to secure 7010 as not
only was it the last of the batch but the every last SELNEC/GMT/GMB Standard
ever and a complete bookend to the First Standard built 22 years before EX1
(PNF 941J).

As far back as 16th December
2003 First Groupís Head Office had acknowledged our interest in 7001 and
7010 (as well as 1481 and 3305 at the time) and gave us in writing the
following commitment.

Bury
Depot:

Prototype Volvo Citybus
1481 (C481 CBU) 30094

First Standard Volvo B10
7001(H701 GVM) 30340

Last Greater Manchester
Standard 7010 (J710 ONF) 30349

Queens
Road Depot:

Olympian 3201 (C201 CBU)
30154

Bolton
Depot:

Last Leyland Olympian 3305
(F305 DRJ) 30215

The locations to which the
vehicles are currently domiciled have been instructed to notify our central
engineering function when the vehicles are to be removed from service. All
locations have been instructed that under no circumstances should these
vehicles be cannibalised for spare parts.

As a safety measure, we have
tagged the units in our maintenance system with a footnote indicating that
upon disposal, the vehicles are reserved for the SELNEC Preservation
Society.

I anticipate that some of
the above listed vehicles will not be available for a considerable period of
time, but offer you the reassurance that when they do become available, you
will be the first to know.

Although we regularly kept in
contact with First Group and First Glasgow we had a disturbing message from
one of our members who had seen 7001 in a scrapyard in Scotland in mid-May
2009 and immediately we got on to First Group who investigated and
discovered that it had been sent to a scrapyard and whilst they were
preparing to have it returned to them so that it could be restored by taking
one of the remainder of the batch 7002-7009 out of service by the time our
message had been relayed to us, relayed to First Group and they had
contacted the scrapyard, all the windows had been taken out and the bodywork
had been melted down into aluminium and steel ingots.

Hence there was no possibility
of the vehicle being rebuilt but in fairness to First Group they did
apologise for this happening and in order that nothing would go wrong with
us securing 7010 or 30349 as it is the National Fleet Numbering System, it
was taken out of service immediately upon the discovery of what had happened
to 7001. It was removed from passenger service the day after the matter of
7001 had come to the attention of senior engineering management at First
Group in Perth, leaving the remainder of the batch or most of them still in
service. It was then checked out over the pits at First Glasgow and in
recompense for the difficulties with 7001, First Group had it driven from
Glasgow to Greater Manchester. Because we were unsure as to what time or
day it would arrive and they were not sure where our storage premises were
in East Manchester we agreed that it could be delivered to First
Manchesterís Queens Road Depot and this actually happened on Thursday 4th
June 2009. It was again put over the pits in Queens Road and checked over
in order that we could collect it, as we did on Sunday morning on our
working day on 7th June 2009, taking it to our storage premises
in East Manchester and parking up in the space vacated the same day by
moving 3277 (D277 JVR) to Leigh in order for rectification work to commence
upon it.

It was delivered new to First
Manchester on 27th March 1982 with Northern Counties body number 4172 and
chassis number 26865 and was officially transferred to the owner of SELNEC
Educational Trust on 4th June 2009, the very day it was being driven from
Glasgow to Manchester.